This simple past tense is very similar to the past tenses in Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin, (Slavo)Macedonian and Bulgarian. But they are almost unfamiliar in the western Slavic and eastern Slavic languages.

composed past tense = prior present tense

As written above, the western Slavic and eastern Slavic languages do not use the simple past tense (-hu, -še , ...). Instead of it, they use the composed past tense made by the combination of the verb byti (to be) in the present tense and the L-participle in corresponding personal form (m. or f. or n. or pl.).

example:

dielati (to do) in the composed past tense

jesm dielal/dielala/dielalo

I did

jesme dielali

we did

jesi dielal/dielala/dielalo

you did

jeste dielali

you did

je dielal/dielala/dielalo

he/she/it did

sut dielali

they did

Jesi li pisala pismo? Did You (f.) write a letter?Ne, on je pisal to pismo. No, he did write this letter.

note:

If You use past form of the verb byti (to be) instead of the present form, You create the prior past tense.

example:

Bieše li pisala pismo? Had You (f.) wrote a letter? Ne, on bieše pisal to pismo. No, he had wrote this letter.

symmetric system of Neoslavonic present andpast tenses

If we do not assumea simplifiedsystem with onlyone past tense (either simple or composed), we can define the complex symmetric system of four tenses in two time levels: the present level and the past level.

present tense (e.g. dielaju, dielaješ, ...) - this is the actual time of the present

prior-present tense (e.g. jesm dielal, jesi dielal, ...) - this is another auxiliary time just before the present tense, but related to the present tense

past tense (e.g. dielah, dielaše, ...) - this is some time in the past

prior past tense (e.g. bieh dielal, bieše dielal, ...) - this is another auxiliary time just before the past tense, but related to the past tense